Description

SUPERHYPERCUBE is a VR "first person puzzler" with classic controls and intuitive shape-matching gameplay. You control a group of cubes and rotate it to fit through a hole in a wall that is constantly moving toward you. Each time you fit through another wall without crashing, more cubes are added to your cluster. Head tracking is critical in the game - as your cluster of cubes gets bigger, you will need to lean around it to see the hole and quickly determine what rotations to make. Stay alive as long as possible, and add your high scores to the ranks of players around the world!

History

Early history

The first version of SUPERHYPERCUBE was created in 2008 for gamma3D, an event that kokoromi organized inviting game makers from around the world to create games in which stereoscopic vision truly impacted gameplay. All the gamma3D games relied on a display technology called anaglyphic stereoscopy – think of those cool 50s style red/blue 3D movie glasses. Kokoromi's “in-house” game, SUPERHYPERCUBE, went one step further, introducing head tracking with custom-modded glasses based on the hardware hacks of Johnny Chung Lee. Players not only saw depth and occlusion within the game world, they could also physically move their bodies to look behind each cluster. In 2010 when commercial motion cameras and kinematic detection were popularized, kokoromi re-visited the game’s head tracking technique (earning an Indiecade finalist nod in the process), but the game still relied on red/cyan 3D glasses to create the visual depth effect. In many ways, interactive technology has developed over the last seven years to support kokoromi’s original vision—a truly physical puzzle game that is both fully enveloping and plays with your spatial perception.

After that

When VR came along (again), we knew the game had found its true home. The original iteration of SUPERHYPERCUBE was rendered in greyscale. But with head-mounted VR, we can go far beyond the chromatic limitations of anaglyphic technology. Aesthetically, SUPERHYPERCUBE VR is influenced by our love for all things glowing, epitomized by neon light, 80s motion graphics, early computer art and the minimalist art movement known as “light and space.” Artists in this genre work with material surfaces, and use neon, LEDs, and sunlight to create abstract work which might change over time or when viewed from different angles. The game’s universe is equally inspired by the neon art of Dan Flavin, the early computer graphics of pioneer John Whitney Sr, and light and space artist James Turrell. We want to give players an experience something like flying or floating through one of these works. The visuals of the game also reference illustrations and films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. We each have our favorite examples, especially from iconic films — from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Blade Runner to Xanadu — with their analog special effects, retro-futuristic user interfaces and delicious lens flares. We couldn’t be more excited to finally bring SUPERHYPERCUBE to its logical, virtual conclusion.